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An unknown positive number of items arrive at independent uniformly distributed times in the interval [0,1] to a selector, whose task is to pick online the last one. We show that under the assumption of an adversary determining the number…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2011-04-18 Johan Wästlund

In this paper, we study $k$-unit single sample prophet inequalities. A seller has $k$ identical, indivisible items to sell. A sequence of buyers arrive one-by-one, with each buyer's private value for the item, $X_i$, revealed to the seller…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2026-03-25 Pranav Nuti , Peter Westbrook

The classical zero-one law for first-order logic on random graphs says that for any first-order sentence $\phi$ in the theory of graphs, as n approaches infinity, the probability that the random graph G(n, p) satisfies $\phi$ approaches…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2009-04-17 Phokion G. Kolaitis , Swastik Kopparty

We examine strategy-proof elections to select a winner amongst a set of agents, each of whom cares only about winning. This impartial selection problem was introduced independently by Holzman and Moulin and Alon et al. Fisher and Klimm…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2014-08-01 Nicolas Bousquet , Sergey Norin , Adrian Vetta

This paper introduces a martingale that characterizes two properties of evolving forecast distributions. Ideal forecasts of a future event behave as martingales, sequen- tially updating the forecast to leverage the available information as…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2021-05-17 Dean P. Foster , Robert A. Stine

We provide new upper and lower bounds on the minimum possible ratio of the spectral and Frobenius norms of a (partially) symmetric tensor. In the particular case of general tensors our result recovers a known upper bound. For symmetric…

Functional Analysis · Mathematics 2024-03-05 Khazhgali Kozhasov , Josué Tonelli-Cueto

We consider the fair division of indivisible items among $n$ agents with additive non-negative normalized valuations, with the goal of obtaining high value guarantees, that is, close to the proportional share for each agent. We prove that…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2026-02-13 Sushmita Gupta , Pallavi Jain , Sanjay Seetharaman , Meirav Zehavi

Testing by betting has been a cornerstone of the game-theoretic statistics literature. One bets against the null hypothesis, and the accumulated wealth $W_t$ quantifies the evidence against the null hypothesis after $t$ rounds, and the null…

Statistics Theory · Mathematics 2026-05-13 Hongjian Wang , Muriel F. Pérez-Ortiz , Wouter M. Koolen , Aaditya Ramdas

Parrondo's paradox arises in sequences of games in which a winning expectation may be obtained by playing the games in a random order, even though each game in the sequence may be lost when played individually. We present a suitable version…

Probability · Mathematics 2007-06-19 Antonio Di Crescenzo

We consider a practically motivated variant of the canonical online fair allocation problem: a decision-maker has a budget of perishable resources to allocate over a fixed number of rounds. Each round sees a random number of arrivals, and…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2026-04-03 Siddhartha Banerjee , Chamsi Hssaine , Sean R. Sinclair

We study the measure of order-competitive ratio introduced by Ezra et al. [2023] for online algorithms in Bayesian combinatorial settings. In our setting, a decision-maker observes a sequence of elements that are associated with stochastic…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2023-07-07 Tomer Ezra , Tamar Garbuz

Two sequential estimators are proposed for the odds p/(1-p) and log odds log(p/(1-p)) respectively, using independent Bernoulli random variables with parameter p as inputs. The estimators are unbiased, and guarantee that the variance of the…

Statistics Theory · Mathematics 2025-01-07 Luis Mendo

If the parameters of the original Parrondo games $A$ and $B$ are allowed to be arbitrary, subject to a fairness constraint, and if the two (fair) games $A$ and $B$ are played in an arbitrary periodic sequence, then the rate of profit can…

Probability · Mathematics 2019-12-13 S. N. Ethier , Jiyeon Lee

Posted price mechanisms (PPM) constitute one of the predominant practices to price goods in online marketplaces and their revenue guarantees have been a central object of study in the last decade. We consider a basic setting where the…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2021-08-24 José Correa , Dana Pizarro , Victor Verdugo

Our work studies the fair allocation of indivisible items to a set of agents, and falls within the scope of establishing improved approximation guarantees. It is well known by now that the classic solution concepts in fair division, such as…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2023-08-10 Evangelos Markakis , Christodoulos Santorinaios

In the compulsive gambler process there is a finite set of agents who meet pairwise at random times ($i$ and $j$ meet at times of a rate-$\nu_{ij}$ Poisson process) and, upon meeting, play an instantaneous fair game in which one wins the…

Probability · Mathematics 2014-06-06 David Aldous , Daniel Lanoue , Justin Salez

Randomized mechanisms, which map a set of bids to a probability distribution over outcomes rather than a single outcome, are an important but ill-understood area of computational mechanism design. We investigate the role of randomized…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2009-04-17 Patrick Briest , Shuchi Chawla , Robert Kleinberg , S. Matthew Weinberg

Matching is one of the most fundamental and broadly applicable problems across many domains. In these diverse real-world applications, there is often a degree of uncertainty in the input which has led to the study of stochastic matching…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2026-04-21 Brian Brubach , Nathaniel Grammel , Will Ma , Calum MacRury , Aravind Srinivasan

We consider a two-player game in which the first player (the Guesser) tries to guess, edge-by-edge, the path that second player (the Chooser) takes through a directed graph. At each step, the Guesser makes a wager as to the correctness of…

Probability · Mathematics 2009-07-14 Marcus Pendergrass

In the Shift Bribery problem, we are given an election (based on preference orders), a preferred candidate $p$, and a budget. The goal is to ensure that $p$ wins by shifting $p$ higher in some voters' preference orders. However, each such…

Multiagent Systems · Computer Science 2016-11-29 Robert Bredereck , Jiehua Chen , Piotr Faliszewski , André Nichterlein , Rolf Niedermeier